Frantz Event A Key Component Of Trial Team

The Ben Frantz First-Year Mock Trial Competition continues to play a major role in developing talent for Pacific McGeorge's nationally ranked mock trial intercollegiate team. Almost all of the members of this year's intercollegiate team competed in the first-year event as freshmen.

The mock trial competition is named after the late Professor Ben Frantz, whose generous gift endowed and initiated the event back in 1996. Open to all first-year students, it draws a field of more than 75 contestants each year.

Each spring, Pacific McGeorge mock trial team members lead workshops on opening and closing statements, and direct and cross examination in the weeks leading up to the event. Nikole McQuillan, '11, and Diane Coderniz, '11, coordinated the 2011 competition.

Three winners are chosen from a large group of finalists. David Norton, Zachary Schultz and Hunter Starr took top honors this year, each receiving a scholarship stipend to go with the addition of their names on a plaque that rests in the campus courtroom's trophy case. Schultz was also the winner of the best oralist award in the 1L Appellate Advocacy Competition.